Whale oil

Before petroleum, whales lit the world. Rendered from blubber, whale oil burned cleaner and brighter than tallow candles or vegetable oils. By the 18th century, whaling had become a global industry, its ships pursuing prey from the Arctic to the Antarctic to supply the lamps of Europe and America.

The Basques pioneered commercial whaling in the Bay of Biscay during the medieval period, hunting right whales—so named because they were the "right" whale to hunt, being slow, coastal, and buoyant when dead. As Biscay populations collapsed, whalers ranged farther: to Newfoundland, Spitsbergen, and eventually the Pacific.

The best oil came from sperm whales, whose heads contained a waxy substance called spermaceti. This material, liquid at body temperature but solid at room temperature, produced candles that burned more steadily than any alternative. Spermaceti candles became the standard measure of light—the candela unit once defined as the light from a pure spermaceti candle burning at a specified rate.

Whale oil demand shaped global commerce. Nantucket and New Bedford in Massachusetts became the industry's centers, sending ships on voyages lasting years. The whaling industry peaked around 1846, when American ships alone killed over 10,000 whales annually. This was industrial extraction before petroleum, with similar patterns of depletion and distant sourcing.

The cascade of whale products extended beyond illumination. Baleen—the fibrous plates filter-feeding whales use to strain krill—provided corset stays and umbrella ribs. Ambergris from sperm whale intestines fixed perfume scents. Every part of the whale entered commerce.

Petroleum ended the whaling age. Kerosene from 1859 Pennsylvania crude oil burned brighter and cost less than whale oil. Within decades, the industry that had reshaped ocean ecosystems and built fortunes collapsed. The whales that survived—many species reduced to fragments of their former populations—were saved not by conservation but by competition.

Whale oil illuminated the path to its own replacement: the industrial infrastructure of whaling—ships, trade networks, capital—created the commercial patterns that petroleum would inherit and amplify.